


buried in your bones (an ache you can't ignore)

by joshllyman



Series: We Keep Meeting (Team 29 Balls to the the Face Sportsfest 2020 "Reunion" Main Round) [5]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Blind Character, Blind Nishinoya Yuu, M/M, Mentioned Shimizu Kiyoko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25058623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joshllyman/pseuds/joshllyman
Summary: Steady job, lots of friends, adoring fans: truly, Nishinoya Yuu has it made.There’s the whole “he’ll never find his soulmate because he can’t see” thing, but that’s minor, all things considered.
Relationships: Nishinoya Yuu/Tanaka Ryuunosuke
Series: We Keep Meeting (Team 29 Balls to the the Face Sportsfest 2020 "Reunion" Main Round) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814893
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66
Collections: SportsFest 2020 Main Round 1





	buried in your bones (an ache you can't ignore)

**Author's Note:**

> sportsfest main round one, entry two! this fic has an accompanying playlist which you can find [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/36Kd8r5drFoMCQt8xdMNbw?si=iiRfmWZoTmWk5p-g8mGv6A)

Yuu has always lived by the philosophy that life’s not worth living if he’s not having fun.

It’s worked out pretty damn well for him so far. At only twenty-two, he’s made himself a reputation as the best bard in the North. People come from miles around to see his company do shows, wondering what the amazing daredevil Noya might do next. The other guys are great, too; Terushima, the juggling swordsman, can always be counted on for a good time, Atsumu the fire-breather is a man after his own heart, and underneath the calm exterior that makes Ennoshita such a great manager, there is a love for the bizarre and incredible. Steady job, lots of friends, adoring fans: truly, Nishinoya Yuu has it made.

There’s the whole “he’ll never find his soulmate because he can’t see” thing, but that’s minor, all things considered.

Sure, he gets propositioned after most shows. Sometimes he entertains them. Mostly they leave the next morning after they get what they want. It’s never really bothered Yuu. Like most other things, he lets it roll off his back. 

They’re preparing for a show, or Terushima and Atsumu are. Yuu tends to just wing it, much to Ennoshita’s chagrin. The others are keeping up a constant stream of something that might be flirtations and might be insults as they warm up.

“Looking sharp, there, Teru,” Atsumu says. 

“You use that pun every single time, fox,” Terushima fires back, but Yuu hears the way he’s grinning with it. “You’d think by now you’d have something else up your sleeve.”

“I have something not up my sleeve, if you’d like,” Atsumu replies slyly, and Terushima’s about to retort when the telltale sound of fire being blown out from Atsumu’s mouth resounds through the room.

A sword clanks to the ground. Terushima growls. “And here I thought you were talking about your--”

“Are you three ready?” Ennoshita asks. Yuu had been too distracted by their banter to hear him approaching. 

He hops to his feet. “Do I have a cheering section? Are they screaming my name?”

Someone--Atsumu, if Yuu had to guess--ruffles his hair. “Too bad all your growth went into your ego and not your legs, or you’d stand as tall as a real man.”

“I’ll have you know quite a bit of my growth went somewhere else--”

“That’s enough!” Ennoshita interrupts. He sighs heavily. “Horny children, all three of you. Get backstage.”

“Yessir!” they chant in unison.

Terushima takes Yuu’s elbow gently and leads him backstage. It’s strange, Yuu thinks as they wait. He’s never nervous before a show, but something feels different tonight. He’s got jitters for the first time since he was just a green kid starting out with his first company.

“Is there something weird back here?” Yuu asks. “Or out there, or something? I’m feeling really strange.”

“You’re imagining things,” Terushima says. He pats Noya’s back. “You’ll be fine.”

Terushima’s right. The performance is spectacular. Yuu pulls off every trick he attempts, and the cheers are just as loud as ever. Still, he can’t shake the feeling that something is  _ different _ . That there’s a set of eyes on him tonight that have never seen him before, that  _ mean _ something.

After the set, he doesn’t stick around to socialize or drink. Terushima walks him back to his room, and Yuu knows him well enough to know he’s at least a little worried.

Terushima pats his head. “Rest up, small fry. Can’t have our star off his game.”

“I’ve never been off my game in my life,” Yuu laughs. He aims a karate chop into Terushima’s side. “I’ll be fine.”

Terushima leaves him. Yuu settles on his back in his bunk and tosses a small rubber ball into the air. 

_ Smack. _ When Yuu is feeling down, he sometimes likes to imagine the smiles on the faces of the crowd when he performs. Before he’d lost his sight, he liked to count each smile in the audience at the end of a show.

_ Smack _ . He imagines a full crowd tonight. They’d sounded loud. Seventy, eight, ninety people crammed into a space entirely too small. Their eyes lit up with the scene before them.

_ Smack _ . Footsteps are headed his way. Ennoshita, probably. Checking in on him. Yuu catches the ball and holds it in the palm of his hand just before the door opens.

“Noya, there’s someone here to see you,” Ennoshita says. “Says his name’s Tanaka.”

“Is he carrying weapons?” Yuu shoots back.

“No.”

“Is he cute?”

Ennoshita sighs. “If I say no, are you gonna tell him to go away?”

“Answer the question, Ennoshita.”

“Objectively speaking? I’d say he’s attractive, yes.”

“Send him back.”

Yuu listens as Ennoshita’s footsteps recede. He tosses the ball up into the air and catches it again, feeling the weight of it in his hands. Then Ennoshita returns with another person close behind. About Ennoshita’s height, if he had to guess, and maybe a little heavier, but not by much. The footsteps stop at his doorframe.

“I’ll be in the next room,” Ennoshita says, and it’s just as much a threat to the stranger as it is a promise to Yuu. He’s a good guy, overprotective even though he knows Yuu can defend himself. It brings a smile to Yuu’s face.

“You should know I don’t give autographs,” Yuu says, sitting up and listening as Ennoshita walks away. “I can’t exactly see the page, you know.”

“I don’t want an autograph,” says the newcomer’s voice. Rough, hoarse, deep. Yuu gets visitors of many genders to his quarters, but they’re usually much less hesitant. Normally by now they’re all over him, begging for his brains or his body. He rarely gives up either. 

“What brings you back here, then?” Yuu asks. “And you can come closer, you know. I don’t bite unless you’re into it.”

The man lets out a sort of aborted laugh, but he does take a few steps forward. Yuu would guess he’s still at least a meter away. “I had to see you closer, I think. Just to make sure.”

The smile stays on Yuu’s face, but it drops a bit. “Make sure of what?”

The man steps closer. He’s within arm’s reach now, and there’s a slight thump. 

“Are you on your knees?” Yuu asks.

The man takes a deep breath. “I’m Tanaka Ryuunosuke,” he says, and Yuu’s about to bite back with a smart comment when he continues. “I’m your soulmate.”

Yuu laughs.

It’s not the kindest reaction; he’ll admit. But he knows it’s a ploy. “Look, man, I’m into dudes if that’s what you’re worried about. We can just have a good time if you want, you don’t have to pull that shit on me.”

There’s a heavy silence in the room when Yuu’s laughter drops away and he realizes the man in front of him--Tanaka--hasn’t joined in. He hasn’t said anything at all, actually.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Yuu says. “But you gotta know, I get that like, once a week at least.”

“I’m not--I’m not fucking with you,” Tanaka says. “Up until recently I thought I was gonna wake up one day and see Kiyoko-san and we’d realize we really were soulmates after all, I’ve been in love with her for like ten years. She just met hers a few months ago and I gotta admit, I’ve been lost, but when I saw you up on stage, I--” He cuts himself off and takes another deep breath. “I remembered, Yuu.”

Yuu swallows. Unless Ennoshita had told Tanaka his given name, there was no way he’d have it. He only goes by Noya on stage. There’s a chance--however small--that Tanaka isn’t lying.

“Tell me what you saw,” Yuu asks. His voice comes out unintentionally hushed.

“We were childhood friends in our last lifetime,” Tanaka says. “We lived by the sea and you were a fisherman. Before that we were both chasing after the same woman when we met. The life before that we...we were soldiers on opposing sides of a war. You laid your weapons down the moment you saw me, and you shouted my name across the battlefield. And before that you were the most popular man in the countryside. All the kids would come to you to teach them magic tricks and sword fighting.” He sounds like he’s crying, now. If Yuu could see it, he would imagine it’s subtle, tears just starting to track down his face. “I know there’s no way to make you believe me, and I understand if you want me to go. I won’t bother you. But if there’s any chance…” 

Yuu’s hand is picked up. Warm, calloused fingers wrap around his own. He wonders what it is Tanaka does for a living.

“Yuu...give me a chance.”

For the first time since losing his sight, Yuu wishes he could see. Not because he wants to confirm that what Tanaka is saying is true, although that would be nice. He wants to see because he wants to know what Tanaka’s face looks like. How he’s looking at Yuu right now. Whether those tears he’d pictured a moment ago are now quietly rolling down his face.

He settles for taking the hand Tanaka isn’t holding and reaching out until he finds Tanaka’s face. It is damp from tears, but Tanaka leans into it like it’s something they’ve done hundreds of times before. Maybe it is.

“Tanaka Ryuunosuke,” Yuu says. Tanaka laughs once, although it’s really more just an exhalation of breath.

“Ryuu,” Tanaka says. “You always call me Ryuu. You thought it was funny our names were so similar.”

That had been the exact thought to flicker through Yuu’s head at that moment. 

Maybe there will never be a way of knowing for sure, at least not in this lifetime. Maybe he’ll wake up in his next lifetime and find that all of this was a lie, or maybe Ryuu will walk away a month, six months, a year from now claiming it was all just a facade. But somehow, Yuu doesn’t think so. There’s a tug at his gut, firm and insistent, that’s telling him to trust this man, despite having no evidence whatsoever to support that decision.

But his gut has rarely lead him wrong before.

Yuu slips down to his knees. “Kiss me like you mean it, Ryuu.”

And he does.

**Author's Note:**

> my socials can be found at joshllyman.carrd.co


End file.
